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ThinkProgress » Wisconsin Gov. Walker Reiterates That The ‘National Guard’ Will Be Used Against A Worker ‘Walk-Off "ThinkProgress has been following both Gov. Scott Walker’s (R-WI) recent “budget repair bill,” which would effectively eliminate state workers’ right to collectively bargain, and his coinciding threat to deploy the National Guard to stop a walkout. Yesterday, the Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers criticized Walker, saying that collective bargaining is “fundamental” to the middle class. Approximately 13,000 peaceful protesters flooded the state Capitol yesterday, including nearly 800 Madison East High School students who left school to protest Walker’s bill. Democratic lawmakers listened to testimonies from citizens for more than 20 hours, stretching into the early morning. Many people who hadn’t yet gotten to speak pulled out sleeping bags. Responding to his inappropriate threat to use the National Guard against resisting workers, Walker said last night on Greta V...

The Human Cost of Failed Revolutions | Solidarity "appened Ernest Mandel In November/December 1918 and in March 1920, a Germany governed by workers councils was on the agenda. The defeat of both the workers uprising of 1918-19 and of the beginning revolution in 1920, however, was brought about by two factors: 1) the collaboration of the Social Democracy (which represented a majority political party within the working class) with the military and bourgeois elites, and 2) the immature and weak leadership of the revolution itself. The German working class paid a high price for this missed opportunity, as did a large portion of the world’s population. One cannot, of course, substitute an imaginary “What would have happened if” for the real historical process which did occur. But it is possible to empirically demonstrate that alternative outcomes were objectively possible. Revolutionary and counterrevolutionary classes, along with significant layers of these classes and their represen...

Union Protest: Wisconsin Teachers Calling in Sick en Masse - Teachers Union - Fox Nation "The protests against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) proposals to roll back public employee unions rights are continuing Wednesday, with schools in the state capital Madison closing as the result of teachers calling in sick en masse. Under Walker's plan, as TPM has previously posted, most state workers would no longer be able to negotiate for better pensions or health benefits or anything other than higher salaries, which couldn't rise at a quicker pace than the Consumer Price Index. Walker and state Republican leaders have said the plan is necessary to deal with the state's budget shortfall. - Sent using Google Toolbar"

Union Leader: Governor's Budget is "An Attack on Labor" - WBAY-TV Green Bay-Fox Cities-Northeast Wisconsin News "Local unions representing public employees are speaking out against Governor Scott Walker's budget repair proposal, saying it undermines all the rights of a union. The bill would strip unions of all collective bargaining power except wages, ending more than 50 years of municipal employee bargaining rights. 'Employees will not have justice. They will not have a say in the workplace. That's anti-American,' Danny McGowan, business representative of Teamsters Local 662, said. Local union leaders are up in arms over the proposal. 'It's nothing more than an attack on labor,' McGowan said. 'We can't fix the states budget woes off the backs of public employees. It's not fair, because it's not their fault.' The president of Local 662, which represents about 9,500 public employees, says he believes the move is about co...

Middle East unrest: Middle Eastern nations scramble to contain unrest - latimes.com "Reporting from Amman, Jordan — To track the growing political movements gaining strength from the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia across North Africa and the Middle East, one would be well advised to get a planner. There were Saturday's clashes between demonstrators and police in Algeria, now referred to as #feb12 on Twitter, much as Egypt's uprising shall forever be known as #jan25. New popular protests are scheduled Monday in Bahrain (#feb14) and Iran (#25Bahman). Libya comes next on #feb17, followed by Algeria again on #feb19, Morocco #feb20, Cameroon #feb23 and Kuwait #mar8. - Sent using Google Toolbar"

Democracy Under Attack "Egypt has always been a strong ally of the United States. The country is now in a situation of near anarchy. Doing nothing is not an option, but improper intervention by the US could be destructive with extremely negative long-term consequences to its position in the Middle East, the proliferation of Radical Islam, and the stability of the entire region. Wise and well calculated decisions and actions are essential to the solution of the current disaster in Egypt. The US has several options that can help to diffuse the situation in Egypt. These include: - Sent using Google Toolbar"

Democracy under attack - by the U.S.A. | Examiner Editorial | Editorials | Washington Examiner Editorials Democracy under attack - by the U.S.A. * TAGS: * washington examiner Comments (0) 'BookmarkShare PrintPrint By: Examiner Editorial 09/10/09 11:00 PM America might refuse to honor the upcoming election results of another democratic nation. But our State Department has taken this hostile posture not toward Venezuela or Iran -- where dictatorships thrive through doubtful and fraudulent elections -- but toward Honduras, which removed a usurping president this summer in an action supported by the letter of its own constitution. Nothing has changed about the upcoming election in Honduras. The candidates are the same ones who were running before President Manuel Zelaya was ousted, with the approval of the nation's Congress and Supreme Court. The only difference now is the United States is demanding that the rapacious Zelaya be returned to power. This would punish self-govern...

Federal Eye - 2011 Budget: Spending cuts and reductions "President Obama's 2011 budget proposes more than 120 cuts totaling roughly $20 billion in savings. Here's a look at some of the more interesting proposed cuts and spending reductions. Leave your thoughts on the budget in the comments section below: - Sent using Google Toolbar"

Thirty years of Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush economic policies. Has put us in this economic ditch “America is looking like a third world country.” By stripping workers of their civil rights, breaking worker unions, deregulation, tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. The conspiracy of the SUPER RICH and Multinational Corporations to rob workers of their dignity and their financial independence. To paralyze them emotionally and financially. To take away their political power. To prevent them from mobility. To take away their voice. To make them invisible. By stealing their homes, by stealing money from their bank accounts, and by getting them deeply in financial debt. As a result, states have lost tax revenues. States have had to raise sales taxes, cut services, and layoff workers. This has affected local communities; it has affected small business because they rely on the locals to spend money for their survival, and community based organizations which all rely on states f...

Latinos for Reform (LFR), a conservative group that advocates for Latino concerns, is airing an ad that discourages Latinos from voting in the upcoming midterm elections.LFR says in the Spanish version of the ad that there is “no excuse” for the lack of action on immigration reform from the current Congress. It attacks “both Democrats and Republicans,” going as far as to call them “traitors” for “playing with our future.” The ad has both an English and Spanish version, with the key difference between the two versions being that the English version singles out Democrats while the Spanish version targets all politicians as having betrayed Hispanic voters. Latinos for Reform ad urges Latinos not to vote - Yahoo! News Blogged with the Flock Browser

- In recent years Democrats and Republicans have tried to pass laws that balance the humanitarian reasons to allow immigration with the fact people are committing a crime when they come here without permission from the U.S. government. - Many Latinos strongly seek reform, and their vote or lack thereof could swing crucial states in 2010. - A comprehensive immigration reform bill introduced by President George W. Bush failed, and President Obama has also made little progress on the issue. - Liberal Democrats have pushed for a new effort to give undocumented workers "a path to citizenship" without leaving the country. - Republicans in Congress have said they will never again consider such a bill until the border between the United States and Mexico is safe and secure. What You Need to Know: Immigration and the Elections Blogged with the Flock Browser

T he stories ProPublica is publishing today on the pharmaceutical industry are part of a broader effort to expand the possibilities of collaborative journalism. The data were painstakingly assembled by Dan Nguyen, a ProPublica web developer whose talent for writing computer code is matched only by his persistence. Two ProPublica reporters, Charles Ornstein and Tracy Weber, tracked down the doctors identified as the biggest earners and vetted their backgrounds . Weber and Ornstein uncovered hundreds who had been disciplined by state boards or lacked credentials as specialists, calling into question the pharmaceutical companies’ assertions that they hire only the best and the brightest. Read more » Editor’s Note: Dollars for Docs Blogged with the Flock Browser

For 18 years in the House of Representatives, Dick Armey fought tirelessly for lower taxes, less government, and more freedom. In 2003, he joined FreedomWorks to lead the same political revolution at the grassroots level. Weak Tea? Conservatives Need a 'Tea Party Makeover' Blogged with the Flock Browser

Speaker Pelosi pointed to three studies showing that the plan for Social Security preferred by Republicans – both privatization and progressive price indexing, a feature that the deficit commission has reportedly toyed with – would slash benefits for middle-income retirees. Chief Actuary of Social Security: Republican Plan Would Slash Benefits Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Tea Party Express kicked off its fourth bus tour of the U.S. on Monday with a rally in Nevada hosted by none other than Sarah Palin, the movement's de facto figurehead. The former vice presidential candidate rallied crowds with one of her trademark stump speeches, telling Tea Partiers they couldn't "party like it's 1773" until they took over Washington D.C. Will the Tea Party Express tour help broaden the movement's appeal ahead of the election? ( Watch Palin's bus tour speech ) Tea Party Express: The 2010 election tour - Yahoo! News

The shameless US Chamber of Commerce is receiving PAC money from transnational corporations to continue outsourcing American jobs; this is squashing small businesses and hurting community based organizations putting millions of Americans out of work. There's 84,000,000 Americans living in poverty this according to the 2010 Census, and everyday that passes the numbers increase. This organization is Un-American it's selling off America one piece at a time to the highest bidder. This is treason disloyal to small businesses and hurting non-profit organizations. US Chamber of Commerce | OpenSecrets